No electric car has ever accelerated as quickly as this little rocket on wheels, named the E0711-11 EVO from the University of Stuttgart’s GreenTeam. It just set a new Guinness World Record by going from 0-62 mph (0-100 km/h) in 1.416 seconds. Here are the extreme measures it takes to perform such a world-breaking feat.
Going fast in a straight line requires power plus traction and as little weight as possible in the process. That’s demonstrated beautifully by how the GreenTeam pulled off this feat. The student-built racer weighs just 320 pounds (145 kg) and develops 241 hp (180 kW). That’s an effective power-to-weight ratio of .753 hp (.56 kW) per pound.
To put that into perspective, that’s a better power-to-weight ratio than just about every supercar you’ve ever heard of. It’s also better than an F1 car so it’s unsurprising that this little car accelerates harder (up to 2.5 g of peak acceleration) than an F1 car (about 2 g). All of that force is ultimately translated into the ground via all four tires which need to be heated up before each run.
Read More: The GAC Aion Hyper SSR Is China’s First Street-Legal Electric Supercar And It Can Do 0-60 In 1.9-Sec
In the video below we get a chance to see the E0711-11 EVO doing just that. Somewhat hilariously, and in a demonstration of how EVs do drag racing differently, the little car can light up each individual axle separately. So first we see the front tires spinning up to generate heat before the rear tires follow in the next shot. We wonder if they could have each axle spin in a different direction for the burnout to save time and look even cooler.
The race from 0-62 is over in an instant. Well, 1.416-seconds to be clear but it’s still amazing to see just how violently the E0711-11 EVO moves through space. Somewhat shockingly, this record is just 0.097-seconds faster than the previous record. That was set by AMZ Racing out of Switzerland when they did the deed in just 1.513 seconds.
For cars to get faster and faster, it seems that the law of diminishing returns will continue to require more extreme measures. We can’t wait to see what the next world-record-holder comes up with.